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JWOC Jaffe Files - Sprint Final

Thursday, 13 July 2017

The day dawned grey and bleak looking with drizzle and
showers for most of the morning. However, this didn’t seem to dampen spirits
and no one knew what the Sprint area would be like . It was set in
parks, beaches, industrial buildings and housing estates of Tampere. The
location was quite different to the model map and the Finns did a good job of
setting a mixture of technical legs, a few traps and an arena that had the run
in past the local lake beach and had many runners running through sand across
another beach. The spectators could see the last two controls and a
spectator control at about half way round and it made for a great atmosphere
although the commentators seemed to pick late who was in contention. 13-15
minute winning times were predicted.

Simeon B was off early and had set himself for the
sprint. He had a bet with Ralph that if he finished top 20 he could do
what he liked to coach Ralph’s hair so a huge incentive. He was charging
through the spectator control and looked great. Zoe was first girl away and
looked OK. It was clear that Simeon was planning well ahead and like many
of the top guys hardly slowed past controls using the emit air system. I heard
later he had six legs planned before he got to number two. Simeon was
very pleased with his time of 1528 but Joey Hadorn, last year’s swiss winner
was soon posting a time of just over 14m. Patrick was through next and tracking
him on GPS he looked clean but didn’t seem as fast as Simeon and he finished 39
seconds further back but happy with a clean run which put him above half way in
the field of 170. It was his highest finish in a JWOC sprint. Rachel, Caroline
and Winnie looked purposeful but were a bit slower than Zoe.

Then it started to get exciting, Tommy Hayes of NZ started
threatening Joey’s H’s time and at the last split was ahead. The NZ army
went crazy and the Aussies also cheered Tommy home. He was in the lead by 7
seconds with about 1/4 of the field to go including Alex Chaplin the top Brit
and Oli O of Finland who had never podiumed in a sprint at JWOC but was one of
the last starters. Meanwhile Toby and Jarrah looked fast but it turned
out Jarrah lost time picking up the wrong map at the map change. Toby was 5
seconds slower than Patrick, and Jarrah another minute back.

Our hopes rested with Tara and Asha in the girls and Joe and
Aston starting 2 minutes apart. Tara looked by far the quickest of our girls at
the spectator and had a determined look. After a somewhat disappointing
middle she had her pedal to the metal and powered round. She was really flying
and ended up in 40th…the best of our girls on the day. Asha also
looked really good and finished 46 seconds behind Tara which got her 66th
and her best JWOC sprint place (I think). She was pretty happy with her run.
Tommy Hayes was still in the lead whilst Simona A from Switzerland doubled up
from last year’s sprint and this year’s middle. She is quite a runner and was 8
seconds clear of Czech Thereza Janosikova with Swede Linnea Golsater
third. The Czech’s were delighted but the Swiss are probably the
best supporters and we regret not bringing our cow bells to match them.

Then we saw Joe D and he was motoring. He had the 11th
best split at the spectator and kept up the pace. We were all excited as he
finished a ‘current” 14th but as others were yet to come that
turned out to be 17th. Top 20 at his first JWOC was amazing
and he was only 43 seconds down on the eventual winner. Aston was also
flying, 15th at the spectator and looking good. Tash predicted as he
ran past us that he would struggle to hold that spot and he came in 24 seconds
down on Joe but a great 32nd spot. We were almost too excited
to note Oli O come from 8 seconds down on Tommy at the spectator to pip him by
8 seconds. He was the only guy to break 14minutes so also got the middle/Sprint
double and the Finns were happy. Tommy pipped Joey Hadorn of Switzerland by
another 7 seconds The Kiwis were really happy to have a medallist and who
can blame them. So that’s how high the standard is, two minutes covered
something like the top 80.

So there we have it. An exciting day with a top 20 place for
Joe D, Aston going about 20 places better than last year, Tara making 40th
and Asha having an excellent run. Not quite Henry’s podium of last year but
Joe, Aston and Tara have more years ahead. The finns set some excellent courses
today mixing enough complexity with good running.

Tomorrow is the rest day. We are looking forward to
helping transport some of the team to the long model map in the morning and
attending the Supporters and Sponsors (ie parents) afternoon tea by the lake in
the afternoon. Must stock up on delicious Finnish cinnamon buns to help feed
the hungry team.

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